Black metal is about the atmosphere it creates. There’s even a sub-genre dubbed atmospheric black metal. It’s very difficult to do well, and for some reason, it’s immediately apparent when a band isn’t serious about it or isn’t “kvlt.” You just can’t replicate what was going on in Norway in the early 90s, and it’s […]

I was drawn to the debut album from The Netherland’s Coffin Feeder by the album cover featuring some awesomely iconic 80s movie and TV characters from the likes of  Cobra, Commando, Predator, They Live, Gremlins, The Running Man, Total Recall, Big Trouble in Little China, He -Man, GI Joe and others all who seem to […]

My fall down the Tech-Death rabbit hole continues. It’s been a wild ride, and it seems to have no end because another killer band has come across my radar. They are called Changeling, and this is a new project from Tom “Fountainhead” Geldschläger. Most recently he wrote  “Weltseelee”, the 15-minute epic that he composed for […]

I’m not the only one for whom melodic death metal hits that sweet spot. I reviewed Buried Realm’s Embodiment of the Divine, and it did an exemplary job. That album hinted at some of the influences, specifically two of my favorite melodic death metal bands, Scar Symmetry and Soilwork, but The Dormant Darkness features Bjorn […]

You’d be forgiven (by me anyway) for thinking that Imperial Triumphant were a Nile ubër concept band based on their masks. You’d be wrong as the day is long, because they certainly are not doing anything remotely Egyptian, especially on Goldstar. During my time with it I got these images from the movie Metropolis, and […]

In my review of Wythersake’s 2021 debut, Antiquity, I said (paraphrasing here) the band had delivered some solid symphonic melodic black/death metal, and with some tweaks, (namely some of the vocals and better synths) could develop into a really promising band. Well, they listened to some of my suggestions. Just kidding. I know my opinion […]

UK’s underrated Cancer return with their seventh full-length album, Inverted World.  I saw Cancer on their US tour in 1991 in support of their second album, Death Shall Rise, which is still their best album, and with James Murphy on guitar nonetheless. After their third album, The Sins of Mankind, in 1993, the band, as […]

Cartilage is a real cool death/grind band out of San Francisco, California. They’ve had a few albums and EPs prior and this new EP Tales from the Entrails: A Necrology, appears to be a stop-gap release before their third album hits.  Their second album, The Deader the Better, from 2022, was pretty damn good.  The […]

I quite enjoyed the self-released debut from Aversed, Impermanent, back in 2021. It was an unabashed homage to Arch Enemy‘s styled melodic death, from members of Alleageon and Begat the Nephillim complete with Haydee Irizarry doing her best Alyssa White-Gluz impression. Well, there are a couple of changes in the Aversed camp. First, the jump up a […]

Spiritworld is back and leaning hard into some cowboy shit. They experimented with it on Deathwestern, but multiple conversations afterward with friends concluded that Wayfarer released the album Deathwestern should have been. In hindsight, I’m not so sure that’s the case, but Helldorado could be. What stands out over their previous album is the commitment. […]

It took 6 years, but we finally have a new ADE album, their 5th, titled Supplicium (‘Punishment’) on a new label, Time To Kill records, and with yet another new lineup. Entering the fray is Hideous Divinity Drummer Edoardo Di Santo (as ‘Atticvs’ here), and Eyeconoclast bassist Gabriele Vellucci. What hasn’t changed is that ADE […]

It’s been since 2020, with Blodiga Skald‘s The Undrunken Curse, that I got truly excited about a folk metal album. *sigh* there was a time when any album with horns, strings, or an accordion would have got me all sorts of worked up. Sure Ensiferum, sort of does it for me, but when I say […]

Wrath of Logarius was first named Martyr Logarius.  It’s some video game character from a game called Bloodborne.  The band started in 2021, released the Necrotic Assimilation ep in 2023, and then changed the name to Wrath of Logarius.  The band logo is still the same style, however. This California based band plays a pretty […]

It took a long time before I really sat down and listened to Jazz. I started with Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Glenn Miller (yeah he’s more Swing, but “Take Five” is a powerhouse) and Ramsey Lewis. But then a funny thing happened in the 90s with the purchase of At Death’s Door 2 and I […]

That logo? Dave Ingram on vocals? Nuclear Blast Records? It just feels right, doesn’t it? 5 years after their return from a 12-year hiatus with 2020’s solid Scriptures, UK death metal veterans Benediction is back with album number 9. And while the band’s middle and later catalog isn’t quite the stuff of legend, there is […]

You’ll read no disrespect from me to Riley McShane because his albums with Allegaeon are incredible. That’s especially true for their most recent, which was my album of the year in 2022, Damnum. However, Ezra Haynes has always been the true voice of Allegaeon. When Riley left after the last album, I was bummed, but […]

A good friend of mine, from the local scene where I live, Kevin from Unholy Anarchy Records, sent me the promo for this Baltimore-based melodic death metal band, Chiaroscuro.  He’s trying to help this up-and-coming act and figured, let me see if Frank would like it.  Quite honestly he got me in the Iron Sheik’s […]

After two fine albums on FDA Records (including 2022’s fucking outstanding Feldwärts), Germany’s war mongering death metal act Scalpture have made the jump to a different German label, Testimony Records for their 4th album, though it comes with mixed results. Saying Landkreig is a step back from Feldwärts is probably a bit over an overstatement, […]

The debut album from the Scotlands’s solo artist Evangelos Vasilakos (also of equally fittingly named black/death act Chestcrush– who have a long in the upcoming Deathgasm 2 movie) has the most fitting band and album name ever, as this album is Caustic, Phlegm-y , Purulent, and Apocalyptic all at once Ladies and gentlemen, what we […]

Legendary is a word reserved for the elite. The bands that have endured throughout the many transformations that have run through Black Metal since It’s vile birth so many years ago. If you don’t know the history of Rotting Christ, go read a book. Seriously, there’s an official book written about them. I’ll wait. Okay, […]

Bands have been releasing B-side album collections for years, and they’re always cleverly titled so you know what you’re getting. We’ll, CrusHuman have done that with Besides… my stupid ass didn’t realize it was a B-side album until I read the presser. Holy hell, it’s songs that didn’t make it onto their amazing self-titled debut. […]

I’ve covered this husband-and-wife duo for two EPs now, first with 2022’s The Void and then 2023’s Elemental Binding.  Both deliver excellent, discordant death metal with themes based on video games, D&D, and such. So I was super happy for the band when they signed with Transcending Obscurity, a perfect label for them. And the duo (Sunshine Schneider—guitar, […]

I once saw progressive black metallers, Dawn of Ouroboros shortly after their debut, The Art of Morphology was released at one of my favorite Pittsburgh area venues, Black Forge Coffee House. I had reviewed it, enjoyed it, and went to the show thinking it would be sparsely attended. Unfortunately, I was right, but they still put on a […]

Norway’s Kryptograf came under my radar in 2022 with their sophomore release The Eldorado Spell.  I loved it so much that I reviewed it, it was in my top 10 that year and I obtained their killer s/t debut. The band plays a very heavy stoner doom/ psychedelic metal and with album number three – […]

After two excellent, reinvigorated albums in Hammer of the Witches and Crytoriana, Dani Filth and his hired gang of ever-changing musical mercenaries, took a step back with 2021, Existence is Futile, where the constant line-up changes, appeared to have taken its toll, mainly Lindsey Schoolcraft, who was settling into her role as the new Sara […]